orange-peel chicken & broccoli.

i've gotten pretty good at throwing a meal together in under twenty minutes or less. granted, tonight was easy, but oh so yummy. i saw this meal in the target supermarket a few weeks ago when travis and i were doing a but of browsing.

you can find it in the frozen food section, and the package says it's enough to feed two. {we actually had leftovers.} travis and i both love p.f. chang's so i thought it would be fun to give this a shot.

on my way home from work, i had to stop off for milk and soda. travis had said he wasn't really hungry when i talked to him on the phone, but my lunch at work today was horrible and i. was. starving.

i remembered seeing the meal before, so i popped by the frozen food section, grabbed this little bad boy, and away i went.

i already had a package of steamfresh broccoli in the freezer that was the perfect compliment to the tangy chicken.

i poured the contents of the p.f. chang's bag into a non-stick skillet, turned the heat to medium-high, and covered the skillet with a lid. it only took twelve minutes to cook. halfway through, i turned on the steamfresh broccoli in the microwave and in six little minutes, i had a delicious meal ready to serve.

i added a bit of garlic salt to the broccoli, put some cottage cheese in a bowl, and served up the delicious orange peel chicken.

it wasn't exactly like the restaurant, but it was pretty good. travis thought the orange was a little too strong, but i thought it was delicious. i'll definitely keep it in mind for the future when i need dinner in a hurry.

baked salmon & mixed veggies.

last night travis and i were ready for dinner, but decided it would be better for our budget if we could make ourselves stay in and eat what we had at home. i pulled a couple of salmon filets from the freezer, a package of steamfresh mixed veggies {broccoli, cauliflower, carrots}, and the carton of cottage cheese.

i didn't really have any lemons or lemon-pepper seasoning, so i wasn't sure what to do with the salmon. i melted a half-stick of butter {i believe that's 1/4 cup} in the microwave. i poured half of it into a small, square baking dish. across the top of the butter i sprinkled garlic salt and sea salt.

i thawed the salmon filets and then added them to the pan. i poured the remaining butter over the top of both filets, added a little more garlic salt, and then black pepper. i put them in the over to bake for about 7 minutes at 375.

while the salmon was baking, i started the steamfresh veggies in the microwave. the food was all ready around the same time. i added a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese to the veggies and mixed them all well.

i wish i would have taken a picture. the pink salmon, the colorful veggies, and the cottage cheese in clear ramekins looked so festive and tasted absolutely yummy.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas.

on saturday night travis decided to go to o'gannins hangout again {did i ever mention that my parents sold their business. it recently re-opened under the name o'gannins by travis's aquaintance, wes}. a couple of travis's friends were there, so he headed to muskogee while i stayed home to start decorating the house.

here's what i have so far ...

it's not perfect, but it makes me smile every time i look at it.

we don't have our christmas tree yet, but soon. i can't wait. i've been dying to decorate the house for weeks!

baked peanut butter oatmeal.

travis and i have had several really great weekends lately. we've spent time getting the apartment in order after making several trips to the storage building. travis's business bought us a desk for the office, and we brought a bed for the guest room from storage. in the midst of all my cleaning, organizing, and decorating, i got the sudden urge to bake something.

i had seen a recipe for baked oatmeal. it's supposed to be a breakfast food, but it sounded absolutely delicious. i found it on tidy mom and realized i had all of the ingredients in our pantry already. it was super easy to whip up and made the house smell yummy.



to make this yummy breakfast or evening snack, you'll need the following:

• 1 1/2 cups of cooking oats
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar {i used splenda}
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup skippy peanut butter

preheat the oven to 350 degrees. grease a 9x13 pan {i wanted to use a pan that had more of a harvest appeal than just a clear 9x13, so i improvised}. mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and stir well. spread into pan and bake 20-25 minutes {my oven took exactly 20 minutes}, or until edges are golden brown.

tidy mom calls for you to serve with warm milk poured over the top. that's how i ate mine, but travis ate his plain. it was a little too peanut buttery for him, so next time, i might scale back a little. i thought it was yummy.

after trying a couple of bites, travis decided that it tastes a lot like the clif bars he likes to eat when he's climbing or working out.

the recipe doesn't call for it, but i added raisins to our before putting it in the oven. i didn't measure them, i just sprinkled enough to cover the top of the mixture in my bowl and folded them in.

this wasn't as sweet as i thought it would be {which makes it a really good breakfast}. if i decided to make it for a snack again, i think i might cheat and add a little more sugar.

i really don't know what has gotten into me lately. i seem to be nesting ... or turning into a housewife. i think i could handle that if it meant i never had to work again ... and could go play and shop whenever i wanted!

i can dream can't i?

sleeping baby boy.

after a week of thanksgiving festivities, our boy is worn out. i love when he cuddles up next to us on the couch.

a night in at kate's.

travis headed to muskogee tonight to play at the pool hall. he suggested i decorate the apartment since i've been asking to since september. once he left, though, i wasn't really up for decorating. kate was getting ready to host thanksgiving for nick's family so she invited me over to see her new placemats, dishes, platters, and fall decor.

once i got there i was sucked in. it was comedy wednesday on abc, so we all settled in with our vino, pizza from uncle vinny's, and enjoyed a lot of laughs with the middle, better with you, modern family, and cougar town.

once we wrapped up our shows, we all headed out into the downpour of rain and over to the apartment. kate and nick borrowed our card table to have plenty of seating for all of nick's family and i had fun showing them the new guest bedroom/office, before they headed back home. they weren't able to stay long since it was already late, and nick's sister was waiting in the car to carry them and the table back home.

such a great night. low-key and absolutely perfect.

bring your mom to work day.

conocophillips is closed for the thanksgiving holiday on thursday and friday. i decided to use my 19/30 day for november {if we work an extra thirty minutes a day, we get an extra day off each month} on wednesday. my boss, darlene, is also great to let us work remotely from time-to-time. since most of the hiring managers and recruiting team was going to be out of the office, i decided to work remotely on tuesday. conor kept snuggling up on my lap, but it was making me too hot and was too much of a distraction while in the office. i loved having him close, so i brought his bed in and put it right at my feet. he cuddled right up and napped while i spent the rest of the afternoon working.

i love being home with my boy.

pumpkin cupcakes.

last week at work i got a pumpkin cupcake in the cafeteria. i posted about it on facebook and travis replied wondering where his cupcake was. i decided i would make some for us at the house and called my mom on the way home from work. she didn't have a recipe, and i was too exhausted to look up a recipe on my iPhone.

i kept thinking about those cupcakes, so finally i headed to the grocery store with a martha stewart recipe in hand.

i forgot to take a picture, so martha's version will have to do.

here's the yummy recipe:

• 2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp coarse salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 /4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1 c packed light-brown sugar
• 1 c granulated sugar {i used splenda}
• 1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

preheat oven to 350 degrees. line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.

in a large bowl, whish together brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. whisk in pumpkin puree.

divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

this recipe makes 18 cupcakes. i didn't ice them the night i made them. i let them sit and cool for quite some time. travis and i each ate one before bed, but neither of us had icing. they were still really yummy.

the next night we both added cream cheese icing to our own cupcakes ... travis made have had two.

i packed up the rest to take as my contribution to thanksgiving dinner. i ended up icing all of them with the cream cheese icing at my mom's ... and did a pretty good job, if i do say so myself. i usually hate the way my cupcakes look when i ice them with just a butter knife, but this time i liked the result. too bad i missed my photo opp.

home from glamour paws.

i love our smiling pup. he's home from groomer and smiling as happy as can be. i love it when travis sends me these photos in the middle of the day. it warms my heart.

homemade meatballs & spaghetti.

don't mind my pan, but i was quite proud of these meatballs i made, so i had to share. i wanted to make something special for travis, but the budget was a little tight, so i had to make-do with what we had around the house. we almost always have the ingredients for spaghetti {though i'm really not a fan}, so i decided to make meatballs. i made the most ecclectic meatballs tonight improvising with sutff i had in my house.


here's what i came up with ...

• approximately two handfuls of texas toast garlic and cheese croutons
• approximately 1 lb of ground beef
• approximately 2 little handfuls of shredded cheese
• 1 egg

i didn't have any italian breadcrumbs, so i used the croutons i had. i placed them in a large bowl, doused them with ecoo, added garlic salt, and onion powder and put them in the fridge to get soggy and marinade.

i put the hamburger meat in the microwave to thaw. after thawing for just a bit, i added approximately two teaspoons of french red wine {that tom brought back to us when he took his trip home to poland} and put it back in to thaw.

after the meat was completely thawed, i added a beaten egg, the marinaded croutons {that were now more like breadcrumbs}, cheese, 1 tsp garlic powder, onion salt, 2 tablespoons of garlic salt, and began squishing it all together with my hands.

i then shaped the meat into 1 1/2 inch balls, put them on a cookie sheet, and baked them at 425 for about twelve minutes.

i was surprised at how well they turned out. once they were finished baking, i added them to the spaghetti sauce, and voila, dinner is served.